James Expounds on Faith Volume 35

 Taming the Tongue 😝 Part 6

James 3:11-12 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. KJV Note: NKJV=New King James Version

Next the Apostle James gives for us a few examples or illustrations of why our tongues 😝 should not be used to bless our Father in Heaven and then turned around and be used to curse men or women here on the earth 🌎 and this the Apostle James does for us by asking these 🙋 questions, "Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh." (James 3:11-12) (KJV), which all require a negative response because it is not possible for these things to occur in nature, therefore, how much more should we be vigilantly aiming to crucify our flesh as the Apostle Paul writes to us with these words, "And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." (Romans 6:13) (NKJV), of which our tongue 😝 is one of our members, and Paul goes on to say these words in this same Chapter of Romans to us, "I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness." (Romans 6:19) (NKJV). Our holiness (even now as we sojourn on the earth 🌎) is our Lord Jesus Christ determined, designated, and direct desire for each one of us whom He has redeemed, regenerated, and resurrected from spiritual death. WE have a responsibility to to yield ourselves to God the Holy Spirit and not to grieve Him because none of this is possible for any of us in our own human strength 💪, therefore, when we yield we receive supernatural power from Him enabling us to 🚶 walk or live as God the Father wants us to as His children 🧒 which also brings about the peaceable fruits of righteousness (Hebrews 12:11) within our inner man 👨 or inner woman 👩. The Apostle Paul also wrote these words to the Church @ Corinth, "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not!" (1 Corinthians 6:15) (NKJV) and also these words to the Church @ Colossae, "Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry." (Colossians 3:5) (NKJV). We can see how all of these commands from God to us through the letters of Paul the Apostle and James the Apostle are given to us to form us into the image of Christ, just as a blacksmith takes a useless piece of iron and heats it up in the fire 🔥 and then bends it and molds it and shapes it into something that is now a useful and beautiful piece of art. Our tongue 😝 is one of the most unruly of our members that we presented always as an instrument of unrighteousness that we must now allow the Power of the Holy Spirit to help us present it as an instrument of righteousness, and not keep falling into the pattern of blessing God our Father and then cursing men 🚹 and women 🚺 made in His image, this is a hard thing for me, therefore, I am speaking to myself mostly. Amen!!!

F. B. Meyer said these words of bridling the tongue 😝, "It is much easier to teach people what they should be and do than to obey our own precepts. Even the best of us stumble in many respects; but our most frequent failures are in speech. If we could control our tongues, we should be masters of the whole inner economy of our natures. The refusal to express a thought will kill the thought. Let Christ bridle your mouth, and He will be able to turn about your whole body. Let Him have His hand on the tiller of your tongue, and He will guide your life as He desires. A single spark may burn down a city. The upsetting of an oil lamp in a stable led to the burning of Chicago. Lighted at the flames of hell, the tongue can pass their, vitriol on to earth. Man cannot tame the tongue, but Christ can. He goes straight for the heart, for, as He said long ago, the seat of the mischief is there." Here is what Alexander MacLaren had to say of James 3:11-12, "Words of prayer and words of cursing come from the same lips. No doubt these hot tempered, and sometimes ferociously religious, Jewish Christians, to whom James speaks, had some among them whose portraits James is drawing here. ‘Away with such a fellow from the earth!’ is a strange sequel to ‘Blessed be He, the God of our fathers.’ But the combination has often been heard since. To Deums and anathemas have succeeded one another in strange union, and religious controversy has not always been conducted with perfect regard to James’s precepts. Of course when the Apostle gibbets the grotesque inconsistency of such a union, he is not to be taken as allowing cursing, if it only keeps clear of ‘blessing God.’ Since the latter is the primary duty of all, and the highest exercise of the great gift of speech, anything inconsistent with it is absolutely forbidden, and to show the inconsistency is to condemn the act. Further, the assertion that ‘salt water cannot yield sweet’ implies that the ‘cursing’ destroys the reality of the verbal ‘blessing God.’ If a man says both, the imprecation is his genuine voice, and the other is mere wind. The fountain is deeper than the tongue. From the heart are the issues of life. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, and clear, pure waters will not well out thence unless the heart has been cleansed by Christ entering into it. Only when that tree of life is cast into the waters are they made sweet. When Christ governs us, we can govern our hearts and our lips, and through these our whole bodies and all their activities." Lastly, here is what Albert Barnes had to say of James 3:11-12, "The Greek word means 'opening, fissure,' such as there is in the earth, or in rocks from which a fountain gushes. Fresh water and salt, James 3:12. Such things do not occur in the works of nature, and they should not be found in man. Such a thing is impossible in nature, and equally absurd in morals. A fig-tree bears only figs; and so the tongue ought to give utterance only to one class of sentiments and emotions. These illustrations are very striking, and show the absurdity of that which the Apostle reproves. At the same time, they accomplish the main purpose which he had in view, to repress the desire of becoming public teachers without suitable qualifications. They show the power of the tongue; they show what a dangerous power it is for a man to wield who has not the proper qualifications; they show that no one should put himself in the position where he may wield this power without such a degree of tried prudence, wisdom, discretion, and piety, that there shall be a moral certainty that he will use it aright."

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.


Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…